Christ fasted forty days.

'And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred' Matt 4:2. For forty days He fasted and prayed. Weak and emaciated from hunger, worn and haggard with mental agony, “His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.” Isaiah 52:14. Christ endured the severest trial which it is possible for man to endure in His fast and temptation in the wilderness in order to make a way of escape for us.
Christ declares that the condition of the world will be as in the days before the Flood, and as in Sodom and Gomorrah. Every imagination of the thoughts of the heart will be evil continually. Upon the very verge of that fearful time we are now living, and to us should come home the lesson of the Saviour’s fast. Only by the inexpressible anguish which Christ endured can we estimate the evil of unrestrained indulgence. His example declares that our only hope of eternal life is through bringing the appetites and passions into subjection to the will of God.

40 days and 40 years is repeated all over the Bible. I think it definitely has some significance. Many say it is a period of testing out probation. But I agree with you. Only through Christ we have any chance of ensuring the temptations the world brings